IBM WebSphere Edge Components (formerly known as "IBM WebSphere Edge Server") is a set of web server/application server components that are intended to improve the performance of web-based systems, particularly as

edge server A content delivery network, or content distribution network (CDN), is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers. The goal is to provide high availability and performance by distributing the service spatially rel ...

s. It is part of the

IBM WebSphere IBM WebSphere refers to a brand of proprietary computer software products in the genre of enterprise software known as "application and integration middleware". These software products are used by end-users to create and integrate applications wi ...

product suite. Current version is version 9.0. It consists of two independent products: *

Caching proxy In computer networking, a proxy server is a server application that acts as an intermediary between a client (computing), client requesting a Web resource, resource and the server providing that resource. Instead of connecting directly to a ...

Load balancer In computing, load balancing is the process of distributing a set of tasks over a set of resources (computing units), with the aim of making their overall processing more efficient. Load balancing can optimize the response time and avoid unevenl ...

Edge Server comprises 4 basic components: * Load Balancer: Used to direct incoming requests to an appropriate server based on a set of rules which may include load balancing requests across several servers. Server selection is based upon health checks which includes the ability for the user to write specialized health check requests. The current level supports IPv4 and IPv6 traffic. * Caching Proxy: The caching proxy system can be configured as either a forward- or reverse-proxy server. Requested content is cached by Edge before being sent to the requestor and subsequent requests can, based on its internal algorithm that can be customized, be served from the cache instead of forwarding them to application server for reprocessing. This improves response time and minimizes network bandwidth use. A primary use of Edge server is therefore to increase the performance and scalabity of J2EE applications. * Content Distribution: This feature is used in conjunction with the load balancer, where multiple Edge server components are used, to distribute HTTP requests based on URL or other administrator configured characteristics, eliminating the need to store identical content on all Edge servers. * Application Service at the Edge: Ability to build a

dynamic web page A server-side dynamic web page is a web page whose construction is controlled by an application server processing server-side scripts. In server-side scripting, parameters determine how the assembly of every new web page proceeds, and includin ...

from fragments generated by multiple application servers Edge can be configured for

high availability High availability (HA) is a characteristic of a system which aims to ensure an agreed level of operational performance, usually uptime, for a higher than normal period. Modernization has resulted in an increased reliance on these systems. Fo ...

with a backup Edge failover server that takes over sessions if the primary Edge server fails.

References

* http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v8r0/topic/com.ibm.websphere.edge.doc/lb/info/ae/welcome_edge.html * tp://ftp.software.ibm.com/software/websphere/edgeserver/info/doc/v20/en/GetStart.pdf Getting Started guide for Edge Server v2{Dead link, date=January 2020 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes
IBM WebSphere V5 Edge of Network Patterns (Redbook)

External links

Official IBM product website for WebSphere Edge Server
IBM WebSphere